Request from a pedestrian

This is a discussion on Request from a pedestrian within Street Experiences, part of the Buckle Up category; Pedestrian has pulled up a nice topic. I cant for the life of me understand why anyone needs to honk ...

Pedestrian has pulled up a nice topic. I cant for the life of me understand why anyone needs to honk at all (for 95% of the time at least). Sure enough, when u are about to pass a bus, cab or a rick i would give a short blast just to let them know am coming through. But apart from that there really is no need.

I was at the sony world signal at Koromangala (bangalore) when one mutt of a motorcyclist came by honking away to glory. And it was one of those sharp shrill horns. Waiting to cross over, my reflex reaction was "stop honking you idiot".. and the guys ego was all flustered. Incredible as it may sound, his reaction to "why are you honking at a red signal" was.... " if you dont like it, you should not walk on the footpath" !!!!

I politely asked him if he has had the benefit of a education. He slurred obscenities and said he was an engineer. The point was completely missed on him. But i was truly amazed that proper educated people behave so illogically on our roads. In hind sight, i should have socked him then and there.

Also request drivers not to honk in parking lots, especially the one's underground, where people are coming out pushing their carts to their cars. Please give them right of way. Especially when you honk underground, the sound gets magnified reflecting and pains a lot more than in general traffic outside.
Also request drivers not to honk, howl etc when going in a tunnel.

And a request to pedestrians from what others have quoted. I don't mind you jaywalking and crossing the road in front of me. But the kind of urgency you show in running up to the front of my car is suddenly lost and you seem to stop and think why the chicken crossed the road kind of stuff for a few seconds and then amble in utter slowmotion. Please don't use the road as a place to stop midway to think. Plan your crossing so that you walk in a smooth motion. Neither too fast, not too slow.

And finally, please cross the road in the narrowest part and not the widest. It does beats me to see people crossing a 6 road junction from one end to another right along the middle at the widest. It does take a bit longer to cross probably 2 or 3 zebra crossings. But then it does make it safer for you and me as well.

This 9th species of Crittur as per Rohan's post is a common one as per my Wife. Till some time ago I used to drop her on the left side of the Inner Ring Road so that she could cross the road and walk across to her office in EGL.
She told me that on many occasions she has requested fellow pedestrians to walk with her on the Zebra crossing but to no avail. Apparently they started looking at her like she was nuts and continued crossing in gangs, shoulder to shoulder as described!
So she simply gave it up as a useless effort and stopped asking them.
I now prefer to drop her at her doorstep rather than have her brave the chaos on the blighted Inner Ring Road in the mornings.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

9. The ones who occupy half of the road because all of them have to walk shoulder to shoulder

11. The ones who see vehicles coming from a distance, and they KNOW that they can amble along and walk across the road like zombies. Yes, I've seen them. In fact, I've seen many of these people crossing the road and making 'mental calculations' simultaneously, as to how many steps they can take in the given time that the car would take to reach them. So they take slow steps accordingly, and the closer they get to the vehicle, the more brownie points they give themselves for not being hit.

They probably consider it as some sort of game? Do they realize that the 'reset' button is on their computers at home, and not on their wrists?!

Request from a driver:
1) pedestrians use the zebra crossing.
2) don't cross roads and talk on cell phones simultaneously.
3) Don't perform suicidal moves like climbing over medians and jumping in front of hapless drivers. (Even if you have the great wall of china for a median our pedestrians will also climb over it and jump.)
4) Also don't form lines spanning half the road and chatting while walking: this especially common near schools.
5) Always hold the kids hands and walk them on the safe side.

It is amazing how a thread on tbhp comes up just around the time that we have had an experience that helps relate to it.
Yesterday I was walking in the neighborhood of my home at Chennai, when I am startled by the loud honk of a car that passed by me. The road has no usable footpath and so I was walking as close to the kerb as possible. Also there was more than enough space for him to pass by, so the honk could have been avoided. I remember how it startled the hell out of me and made me think what the regular pedestrians would be going through on a daily basis.

@zenx, while your intent was good and for a cause worthy of action by tbhp-ians, the thread got the wrong attention due to your "I have complete right of way" statement which is factually wrong like many pointed out and which could have been avoided. Anyway, with your thread & my own experience stated earlier, I am going to avoid honking as much as possible. Thanks.

I guess it was technically incorrect. But, on a narrow road with no pavements, the sense of entitlement and resultant impatience a lot of drivers headed towards e-city/back display gets my goat, and I feel like asserting my presence as a pedestrian.

Most responses here miss a point : pedestrians (esp those not crossing roads or intersecting with traffic) are not causing any kind of damage to you. Don't compare that with a tonne of metal crashing into them to justify the high decibel levels that can cause very real damage.

The request from the pedestrian is fair enough. Noise pollution due to incessant honking can be very stressful. One of the reasons why, my family insists I roll up the windows and put on the AC no matter what. Pedestrians of course don't have this luxury.

According to me honking syndrome is a culture thing (driving culture i.e). People learn to drive, come on to the road and see everyone honking and join the bandwagon. Even I remember when I learnt to drive, my mom or any other other elder sitting behind me would find a major shortcoming in my driving . I did not honk enough to qualify as a "safe driver" .

I resist from using the horn as much as possible, because I know it will have no effect, esp in the city, as nobody takes note of one 'beep'. Sometimes honking has the opposite result. If one honks with the intent of passing, you find that you are only alerting the guy ahead to close that gap.

What I'm going to write is completely based on my day-to day experience and opinions may vary widely depending of whether or not you have been in my shoes :

1."Cant you even honk!!" yells a pedestrian with accompanying profanities.

Me: Ohhhh, yes, sure i can. But the lights are green and this ain't no intersection for pedestrians to cross over. I did not expect you to jump right in front of me in the middle of the road.

Pedestrian : " You should honk every time you see someone trying to cross the streets..learn to drive properly."

2. Parked my car in a "no-horn" zone. On return, i find a dozen ladies standing in front of my car and gossiping away to oblivion. I walk into my car, start the engine and expect them to give way but they were seemingly unaware of their surroundings. Revved the engine, flashed the lights, nothing even remotely managed to bother them. Ran out of patience, walked out and approached them, and the response :

3. A message behind a bus blocking the right/fast lane, unloading passengers (who never complain about being dropped in the middle of the road) reads "Horn Please". Well, that's the most valuable, timely and tempting piece of advice you'll ever get.

I could go on with a few more, but I think the message has been conveyed. Thus, though i agree about the nuisance it creates, more often that not, I do not feel guilty about pressing my thumb against the middle part of my steering wheel.

Oh! and by the way, that "I have complete right of way" attitude might land you in trouble someday. You do not have complete right, you share your right with all your fellow citizens absolutely equally. To exercise your rights you must first learn to adhere to laws/rules. Remember, rights and rules were formulated to co-exist.

Oh! and by the way, that "I have complete right of way" attitude might land you in trouble someday. You do not have complete right, you share your right with all your fellow citizens absolutely equally. To exercise your rights you must first learn to adhere to laws/rules. Remember, rights and rules were formulated to co-exist.

+n to that. Though typically, right of way is being accorded more and more to those more vulnerable over those higher up the "automotive" chain and less vulnerable. On my cycle, I yield to pedestrians no matter what.

The statement was more a reaction to the strong sense of entitlement I observe in motorists who drive past as I walk more than anything else. A little over the top, yes.

How do I awake that fool who is riding towards me in wrong lane talking on mobile?

My right broken right ankle + 4th metatarsal is ample proof of such morons. Despite headlight hi beams and pulsar dual horn blaring the guy did not look up from his mobile on the tank and crashed into me from 1 o clock angle. i had no time after stopping to get off the bike after realizing he was going to hit me from about 20 meters.
To make maters worse, he ran away after skid and a fall with a broken indicator while i'm on the bike at perfect standstill and both brakes on and engine running, unable to get off with a badly bleeding leg.

I am in a big rush to reach my destination. I just can't relax. Everyone else must move aside to pave the way. Obviously my work is more important. But even if I rush bigtime and manage to get my way with help of some smart honking, it would save me barely half a minute to one minute over a 10-15 minute drive. Is that half a minute so important to ruin the quarter hour of my drive? What kind of life - so full of urgency - am I leading? Time to recheck my priorities. I finally decide to drive in a relaxed manner without honking - enjoying the music, weather, the other nuts on the road, whatever. It helps reduce my stress level too!

Someone's moving like a fish and changes lanes unnecessarily and gets just ahead of me. The safe 1-2-3 count distance from the car up ahead I was maintaining has been eaten away by the moron. Or some other moron overtakes me from a wrong direction - in a dangerous way. So to reprimand him, I get impatient and honk. But hey! Does he even care? Nope. I can't really expect to teach anything to a nut! I am also risking road rage. So is there any use honking? But then letting him overtake me in such manner also hurts my ego. Oh so it's my own ego issue! Is my self-esteem so low that it gets affected by some silly actions of other guys? Guess I need not get worked up and punish myself by fretting over what others are doing. Let me rather mind my own business. Maybe I can slow down a little to ensure safe distance from the car ahead. Probably one more nut will get in the fresh space and so on. But does it reallly hurt me? not really!

I must honk at semi-blind and blind turns to warn the traffic that I am approaching the turn. Of course, the world must know the King is arriving! Probably other guys are also thinking the same thing. And I nearly avoid a collision with a similar minded guy who has also been honking his arrival without bothering to slow down. I realize it's much safer and relaxing to slow down and there really is no need to honk.

All in all, I avoid honking purely out of enlightened self-interest. How about you? If you really get to it, you realize that a very large majority of the practical situations can actually be managed better without honking.

There can still be times, when I may have to honk

I am in a situation when any driving manouvre may not be adequate to avoid a potential collision.

There are people begging to be honked to move away - one can figure out such situations - this rarely happens in Delhi / Noida but much more common in smaller towns.

Since the thread is on pedestrians, here is my take on getting honked as a pedestrian. Of course, the car / bike must slow down. And must not honk. What if I am jaywalking? Or I am rushing on a busy street instead of waiting for the traffic to thin down? The motorist must have due regard for my life rather than rushing for his some silly job. But then, am I not subjecting myself to grievous risks? Yeah, the honking hurts. But I can't change the ways of that dumb motorist. And if I observe some discipline while crossing the road, I'm much safer and also, I now realize, that there is lot less honking by the motorists too! And if I am on zebra crossing, and the moron is still honking, that's really his problem. Poor chap is always in a hurry, in a rush to reach the destination that never comes - no time for life which is here and now! I pity the chap!

To repeat a cliche, can I first be the change I want the world to be - for my own sake?

It is a nice thread. We seem to have moved from rights to mutual obligations of pedestrians and the motorists. Maybe someone should compile the good ideas so that a set of norms can evolve. Whether and when they would get universally followed is another matter.

I am just putting one (obligation) for each toward the other:

Pedestrians: never cross roads at green signals. After a minute or so of waiting for the light to turn green impatience is high among the motorists. Even if a motorist wants to stop his vehicle may get rear ended and in any case other impatient vehicles may go around this vehicle and hit the pedestrian.

Motorists: Slow down as soon as you see a pedestrian irrespective of who eventually goes first. Even if the speed is slower by 25%, it gives the pedestrian more than expected time to make decisions and less chance of a panic reaction of running across or stopping suddenly in the middle. Some motorists seem to believe that slowing down will necessarily mean that the pedestrian will cross the road forcing the vehicle to stop. I have found this is not true, in my limited experience.

Anyway, with your thread & my own experience stated earlier, I am going to avoid honking as much as possible.

I tried to not honk at all, especially at pedestrians, but while I could avoid this in the main roads, it was not possible to do without honking in small inner roads. An example (for those who know Chennai) is what I call the last-mile home - the 1.5km stretch from PowerHouse junction on Arcot Road till Anna Nedumpathai (around where Gill Nagar starts). Those who see this road today encroached on both sides by road-side businesses & hawkers would find it tough to believe that till the early nineties this route had MTC bus service (route M15) from Vadapalani to Aminjikarai. Of the 20km 1-way commute to work, this 1.5km takes me the most time to cross. While the remaining 18.5kms are disposed off in 40mins, this short stint takes me 10-15mins. Ironically, it takes me the same time to walk that distance

Coming back to topic, people not only just don't give way even when you honk, they walk 'on' the road which is at best wide for 2 cars to cautiously cross. And when you honk couple of times, they will shift just their 'behind' a wee bit (only the behind, not the full body), without moving to the side.

The other day, there was this elderly lady walking back home from the temple with a flower-basket in hand. The road is one of those inner roads in Choolaimedu wide enough to at best let 2 cars pass each other. Though the road is empty, she is walking with atleast 3-4 feet between her and the edge of the road - I dont think it is intentional, maybe her thoughts are somewhere else or its the age. Anyway, I think I will cross her without honking, assuming she will move off on 'hearing' the car when it comes close. But she is not aware and I have to sound a short honk to make her aware of my presence. She hurriedly moves to the edge, which makes me feel bad, but there was no other option, as an auto was coming from opposite side and I could not pass with her on the road.

One of the reasons we need to honk is because with technology, cars have become so silent as to be almost inaudible, even when close to us. So pedestrians are not just aware that there is a car barely a feet away from them, unlike in the Amby/Fiat age when you could hear them from a distance. When I am in a no-honking mode, I see that even when I am barely inches from the pedestrian who is walking way away from the kerb, they are not aware. So a short honk is a necessity here for safety sake.